History of Afghanistan

“The conquest of Afghanistan seemed accomplished, and a considerable portion of the troops were sent back. But the Afghans were noways content to be ruled by the Feringhee Kaffirs (European infidels), and during the whole of 1840 and ’41, insurrection followed on insurrection in every part of the country. The Anglo-Indian troops had to be constantly on the move ... Thus ended the attempt of the British to set up a prince of their own making in Afghanistan.”

“All the paraphernalia of modern war has descended upon Afghanistan: the napalm, the tanks, the night-time executions, the refugee camps slowly turning into tent cities. On the one side the prophets of helicopter gunship socialism talk of ‘progress’ while their Russian masters bomb the peasantry and shoot down the students. On the other side an outraged people fights bravely under the banner of religious bigotry and the leadership of blatant careerists. It seems that neither side can win the war.”

“You had read in the press that you would find Kabul choked with Russian
tanks and you were prepared to find them, but found none: except when,
pushing through the tangled, uncontrolled traffic, you broke into
Revolutionary Square, and there it was: that ‘minimal’ Russian tank.”

“The Russo-Afghan War is over. The killing has not finished yet. Tens of thousands will still die, a few of the sons of Kiev and Tashkent, many of the Sons and daughters of Herat and Kandahar. That is always the way with Geneva settlements. But the issue has been decided. The Soviet army has been defeated. The Mujahedin have won.
“For forty years the USSR and the USA have policed the world. This is Russia’s Vietnam: a major defeat for imperialism. As such it is more than welcome. It increases the space for popular movements in Poland and Hungary, in Armenia and in Moscow.
“But if this is a defeat for helicopter gunship ‘socialism’, it is also a victory for the mullahs and the landlords. The Mujahedin are an authentic mass movement: the Afghan peasantry in arms. But the leadership and the politics of that movement are reactionary. Whichever faction of the resistance finally consolidates power in Kabul, they will lead a brutally repressive right-wing government.”

“All the horrors that engulfed the peoples of Afghanistan in the last
quarter of the twentieth century were called down on them by the
Stalinist ‘Great Saur Revolution’ of 27 April 1978. It triggered the
bloody 23 year cycle that ended with the fall of the Taliban regime in
December 2001.”